Sunday, July 05, 2015

England 2015: Day 4--The Bodmin Moor and 2 Parish Churches, Cornwall

By now it's Thursday, 18 July, our last day in Cornwall visiting Lisl's BFF (best friend forever), Pauline. You could say we squeezed every drop out of our time together.

In the morning we drove to the Bodmin Moor, just 25 miles away from St. Austell. Did I know what to expect? NO. For one thing, it's 80 sq. miles in size and is as old as time itself (from the Carboniferous period), housing 10,000 beef cows, 55,000 breeding ewes, and 1,000 horses and ponies.

To be honest, before I stepped onto the moor from the parking lot,

the first thing I saw was the belted cows.

And then the horses. All of them up close and personal!

The foals were everywhere, nuzzling their mommies.

This one in particular caught my eye.
Can you hear the blustery wind and feel the sense and sensibility of the moor?

Then I started to breathe it all in.
In the distance we saw the Cheesewring granite tor, a natural geological formation.
But all the stones felt full of energy. Thousands of years locked up in them, trying to get out.

As we walked amongst them, they felt as alive as the animals walking around them.

The sheep reminded me of grizzly bears.
I'd look like that, too, after years on the moor.

The vegetation knows how to survive, of course.
The gorse, of course. A thorny, evergreen shrub suited for the moor.

Back in the 1700s there were mining enterprises for the tin and silver.
Their long-abandoned structures reminded me of Wuthering Heights.

It was near this spot that we walked off the moor into the wee village of Minions, from 1613.

Call me delightfully shocked to see the sheep having the run of the village.
WE were THEIR guests, no question about it.

Once in the village, it was time for an ice cream (Cornish Vanilla, of course) and a rest.

Back at the car, many of the horses had come down to the parking lot.
Wild and free and not afraid of anyone.

And as we left the area, we made one last stop at a cross and King Doniert's stone,
2 pieces of a 9th century decorated cross.

Talk about history!

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From the Bodmin Moor we drove to the Halfway House Inn/Pub in nearby Liskeard to meet up with Pauline's husband Christopher for lunch. It was Lisl's and my treat for such a lovely stay with them.

I made sure I treated myself to a steak pie and Doom Bar ale lunch.

More English you cannot get.

THANK YOU, dear Pauline and Christopher, for all your hospitality.

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After lunch, and with the afternoon still available to us before our train ride back to Bath, we 3 girls continued our search for parish churches from the previous Day 3. These get added to the list:

15 comments:

Ginnie, I get so much pleasure from your posts. This trip has been especially wonderful. I'd love to spend the kind of time in England (and Scotland) that you have. LOVE your photos of the animals being free and roaming about the villages. Belted cows! Who knew? I'd also love to know the names of the types of sheep. Great food picture--I've never had a real pub-style meat pie with an ale. (Just the ale!) So happy you had such a full and rich birthday journey and shared it with us-:)

What a wonderful journey to Cornwall - and how many churc hes did you see - I cannot count them! I especially love the belterd Gallowey cows and the horses - I can well understand your enthusiasm while staying there with Lisl and Pauline, the best hosts you can ever meet. Cornwall is also one of favourite counties in England! Your photos are great memories!

I love those Belted Gallaways. Doesn’t everyone call them Oreo Cows, and for me the mine buildings were a special treat. Do you know how they were used? …why they were so tall and narrow? Any zinc mining? Yeah, and wild horses are pretty special too. However, you must tell me more about the Blisland Parish Church. You said very old, but to my eye parts looked almost c.1900 Arts & Craft. What am I seeing wrong?

My understanding, Ted, is that tin and silver were the main metals mined in the day. I have no clue about anything else. And the Blisland parish church...was just a perfect gem. Here's the link again, to see if it answers any of your questions? http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=4308

Thanks. It’s not important, but I thought it might have been mentioned. The issue is that zinc is the key element in making brass. IT could be distilled from calamine, but there was no reliable way of smelting the zinc ore to obtain the pure metal until the 1780s. Since the brass industry’s center was Birmingham, England, I was wondering where they mined the ore for their zinc.

About Me

Over time, if we shoot authentically, follow the leanings of our heart, our body of work will become a silent testimony to who we are and what we care about. (Jan Phillips).
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